Travel is an activity some people use as a classroom. Leaving the familiar lets us learn about culture, history, the environment and many other topics.
Recently, a small group spent six days traveling America’s southern states to learn about the country’s racial past and the impact of the Civil Rights movement today. This immersive tour took them across several states to places that have come to define periods in America’s racial history—from Charleston, South Carolina’s slave trade market to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
The group visited sites that put this country’s racist history on display, and Us & Them host Trey Kay was along to hear them reflect on our nation and themselves.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
Trey Kay
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James Person, one of the original Freedom Riders, in Atlanta, GA, with Us & Them host Trey Kay
Trey Kay
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Professor Todd Allen speaking to a tour group at King Center in Atlanta, GA.
Trey Kay
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Us & Them host Trey Kay at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA
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Final resting place for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, GA.
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Betsy Disharoon in her art studio in the suburbs of Boston, MA.
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McLeod Plantation is a former slave plantation located on James Island, near Charleston, SC.
Trey Kay
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John Gardiner stands in front of small cabins, which once house enslaved people, and speaks about the history of the McLeod Plantation and the slave trade in Charleston, SC.
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Aziz Abu Sarah, founder of Mejdi Tours, rides on a bus heading to Charleston, SC and tells travelers about his experience as a Palestinian growing up in Jerusalem.
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Mejdi Tours’ Civil Rights Journey stops at the site of the future International African American Museum in Charleston, SC.
It’s another Thanksgiving with COVID-19, but this time, vaccinations allow many Americans to gather together and share a hug and a meal.
Us & Them host Trey Kay invites his ‘virtual dinner party’ guests back for an anniversary. It’s a tradition we began last year – bringing together a wide ranging group to talk occasionally about the hot topics of the day. We talk politics and the 2020 election as well as the issues of election reform that continue to reverberate. COVID vaccinations and masks present some honest conversation.
This year we’ll see what kind of common ground there is at the table. It seems the more the dinner party guests talk with each other, the more they learn something that can help them see things more clearly and connect on different levels.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in Thursday, Nov. 25, at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on Saturday, Nov. 27, at 3 p.m.
Kathy Kay
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Host Trey Kay enjoying a “non-Thanksgiving” Thanksgiving meal at a virtual table with the Us & Them “Dinner Party” crew.
Us & Them host Trey Kay honors Veterans Day with a remarkable conversation with the last surviving World War ll U.S. Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams grew up as a farm kid in the Mountain State and enlisted in the Marine Corps just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He served in the Pacific campaign and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Williams received the Medal of Honor for fighting against enemy positions to open a lane for infantry soldiers. For four hours under heavy fire, he used a flamethrower against reinforced concrete pillbox defenses.
After leaving active service, Williams created a foundation to honor the families of service people lost in battle and offer scholarships to the children of fallen soldiers.
Williams, who is 98, says his goal is to ride a horse on his 100th birthday.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
Cameron Donohue/TEDxMarshallU
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Trey Kay, host of Us & Them with Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams, the last surviving World War ll U.S. Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor. Kay and Williams spoke at TEDx event at Marshall University in March 2020.
West Virginia is now the 42nd state to introduce public charter schools as an educational choice for parents and students. A new state law allows for the creation of 10 charter schools over the next three years. That can include two virtual charter schools. A state authorizing board is reviewing seven applications that are required to follow the same rules and regulations that public schools do, but charters can offer more flexibility to adapt and adjust learning approaches.
In some states like Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina and California more than 10 percent of students now attend charter schools. The educational reform movement got its start 30 years ago in Minnesota and in the past three decades, charters have created an us-and-them divide.
Despite their popularity and expansion, some people oppose charter schools. They say charters drain students and resources from traditional public schools. When students attend a charter program, state funding moves with them. We’ll hear from students, parents, teachers and leaders about West Virginia’s decision to bring in charters — and a lawsuit that claims the plan is unconstitutional.
For this episode, Us & Them host Trey Kay speaks with West Virginia State Senator Patricia Rucker, who championed the landmark legislation to permit charter schools in the Mountain State. Kay also checks in with people involved in the charter debate on the national level. He speaks with Joe Nathan, who helped write the nation’s first charter public school law and Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education in President George H. W. Bush’s Administration. Ravitch was once a supporter of charters, but is now one of the nation’s most outspoken opponents.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in tonight, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 3 p.m.
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WV Legislative Photography
Senate Education Chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, speaks during a Senate floor session on March 25, 2021. Rucker was a champion of West Virginia’s new charter school law.
Courtesy of Alfred A. Knopf Publishers
Diane Ravitch is a former assistant secretary of education. She is one of the leading opponents of charter schools nationally.
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Since 1970, Joe Nathan has worked with traditional and chartered public schools as a teacher, administrator, parent, PTA president and researcher. Nathan helped write the nation’s first charter school law and Minnesota’s law.
America is seen as a land of opportunities and education for all, but a group of young refugees in Pennsylvania had to challenge the local school district to access their schooling.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, school officials first said the six refugees, aged 17 to 21, were too old for public school programs. Only after a lawsuit and protracted negotiations, were the students placed in classes for English language learners.
Us & Them host Trey Kay speaks with Jo Napolitano the author of a new book, “The School I Deserve,” which follows this case. He also has a conversation with Khadidja Isaa, one of the refugees who fought for her education.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Jo Napolitano
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Jo Napolitano has more than twenty years of journalism experience at The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Newsday.
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Immigrant Khadidja Issa in the classroom at McCaskey High School in Lancaster, PA.
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Khadidjah Issa hugging her mother after her graduation from McCaskey High School in Lancaster, PA.
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Trey Kay visiting Khadidjah Issa at her home in Lancaster, PA.
Every year West Virginia children are taken into state custody. Sometimes, a case involves parental neglect or drug abuse. Other times, kids commit crimes and are placed in juvenile residential facilities.
The juvenile justice programs and agencies have been under a spotlight over the past decade — partly because West Virginia has had one of the highest rates of juvenile incarceration in the country. Lawmakers have passed bills to reform the system but the outcome is mixed.
Meanwhile, juvenile incarceration means the system makes decisions for kids — and those changes can last a lifetime.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on
WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Louis Mitchell
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Geard Mitchell (19) knows West Virginia’s juvenile system first hand. He spent nearly three years in the Donald R. Kuhn Juvenile Center in Julian, W.Va. Mitchell, who now lives in Brooklyn, NY, is one of 12 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the State of West Virginia. The plaintiffs argue the state violated the rights of children by failing to plan appropriately for juveniles in state custody.
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This is the exterior of the Donald R. Kuhn Juvenile Center in Julian, W.Va.
Laura Rigell
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Trey Kay is in Boone County, W.Va. standing on the shoulder of U.S. Route 119 in front of the Donald R. Kuhn Juvenile Center.
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Ronda Lehman has been the coordinator of Teen Court in Jefferson County, W.Va. since 2013. There are currently about 16 other Teen Courts in the State of West Virginia.
